Struggling with Circumstances 10

. . . "This was the practice of Socrates: this was the reason why he always had one face. But we choose to practice and study anything rather than the means by which we shall be unimpeded and free.

"You say, 'Philosophers talk paradoxes.' But are there no paradoxes in the other arts? and what is more paradoxical than to puncture a man's eye in order that he may see? If any one said this to a man ignorant of the surgical art, would he not ridicule the speaker? Where is the wonder then if in philosophy also many things which are true appear paradoxical to the inexperienced?"

Epictetus, Discourses 1.25 (tr Long)

I can understand why philosophers, and Socrates in particular, are often seen at the very least as an annoyance, at the very worst as deeply dangerous.

 The true philosopher is not merely an academic. He is a man committed to truth, and he lives accordingly. He understands that the higher goods of the soul are not to be compromised for the lower goods of the body, and this is readily apparent in the consistency between what he says, and what he does. As Epictetus says, Socrates had only one face. He did not preach wisdom and virtue, and then sell out those qualities for convenience and utility.

The true philosopher seems an annoyance because he reminds us that we aren't really all that we say we are. We mouth the words, and are content to act very differently. Few things are more frustrating than being caught out. The blame is on us, of course, though we readily blame the messenger. Note how deeply anti-Stoic we are by dodging our own responsibilities.

The true philosopher also seems dangerous, because his values, and his actions, are not merely inconvenient to our feelings. They can undermine all the false standards and assumptions of the world we live in. Socrates was seen as not only believing in all the wrong things, but as challenging established convention and corrupting the young.

If heterodoxy and iconoclasm involve reminding people that wisdom, temperance, justice, and courage are always better than ignorance, greed, power, and cowardice, then I'd like to know where to sign up as a corrupter.

We may think that those philosophers are too clever for their own good, and that they are full of contradictions. Yet the doctor, knowledgeable in healing the body, seems full of paradoxes to the layman, just as the philosopher, the healer of the soul, seems full of paradoxes to the willfully ignorant.

It is the philosopher, like Socrates, who recognizes that circumstances are hardly burdens. They are opportunities to live with excellence. Yes, they will sometimes hurt, sometimes terribly so, but I need only remember how little a thing I may be giving up for so great a reward. Understand what is right and good, the measure of true happiness and joy, and it all falls into place.

Written in 7/2005

Image: Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother (1936)